Frank Juliano, Staff Writer

Published 12:03 am, Tuesday, September 28, 2010

MILFORD -- A police lieutenant was suspended for one day without pay for inadvertently ordering the destruction of thousands of hours of dashboard video sought by the family of one of the two teens killed when a speeding Milford police cruiser slammed into their car.

Police Chief Keith Mello said Monday afternoon that he suspended Lt. Dan Bothwell, who is in charge of the Records Division, in the incident. The video was the subject of a Freedom of Information request by lawyer Bart Halloran, who said that he hoped to use it to establish a pattern of Milford police officers using excessive speed on routine business.

"I am furious, absolutely outraged at this," Halloran said Monday night. "We will be pursuing every legal remedy available to us for destruction of evidence."

Halloran represents the parents of David Servin, who was killed June 13, 2009, along with his girlfriend, Ashlie Krakowski. The two, both 19, were returning to Servin's home in Orange when their car was hit broadside by a Milford cruiser driven by Officer Jason Anderson.

Anderson's speed was estimated at more than 90 mph in the moments before the crash on the Boston Post Road. He was fired last December and has been charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter.

Mello said at the time of the crash that Milford police had between 18 and 20 months of footage from dashboard cameras stored on a server. State law requires municipal police departments retain the most recent 30 days of video. The chief said that Milford police were aware of Halloran's FOI request.

The chief stressed that none of the footage of the crash, taken from the Milford cruiser behind Anderson's, and none from the 30-day period that included it, was affected. The deleted material was "non-critical, in-car police video files from 2008 and 2009," he said.

"I disciplined the lieutenant for unintentionally violating an order to retain video files that were being reviewed for possible release under the pending FOI request," Mello said. Bothwell reportedly instructed a Management Information Systems staffer who works in the Parsons Government Center to delete the files. That instruction was in accordance with State Records Retention schedules, but violated Mello's order to retain all existing video files.

"Quite plainly, this should not have happened," the chief said, adding that he called in a computer forensic examiner to try to locate and recover the deleted material. "This accidental lapse is a stark reminder to pay close attention to every detail of our work. This employee has expressed sincere regret for his error." No additional disciplinary action is expected, he said.

The scheduled Oct. 18 hearing before the state Freedom of Information Commission will go forward, Halloran said, "at which time we will seek the maximum penalty the commission can assess." That maximum, officials said, is $1,000 per violation.

"It seems to be one thing after another with the Milford Police Department," Halloran said. "Their apology really helps," he added sarcastically. "It is inconceivable to me that this evidence would have been destroyed if it had been in any way helpful to their case."